The upcoming eclipse is creating a blossoming tourism opportunity for a town with stellar vantage points. Boerne, TX is one of those gold rush towns, but as Chris Shadrock, Communications Director for the City of Boerne, told WOAI-TV, he is concerned that the sudden influx of people could be digitally overwhelming.
“Just when you have a really concentrated area of people using the same cell tower, there could be some disruption, especially for those using cellular data,” noted Shadrock.
Anticipating a swell in Kendall County’s population as people gather to view the total eclipse in April, Shadrock said that Boerne’s Emergency Management department reached out to providers to figure out the best way to handle the digital demand. He said that he would like to invite a temporary tower, or COW to town during the event.
“Instead of having to go somewhere and erecting a whole new cell phone tower for cellular data, they have mobile ones available. We made that request,” he told WOAI-TV, but “We were not authorized to get one.”
Business owners in town have also expressed concerns that payment transactions that route through the internet could be impacted by the surge in eclipse visitors. Boerne officials have suggested that travelers may want to bring cash as a backup option.
“We are also getting some redundancy of having another way to take credit cards in addition to our regular way, just in case the internet goes down and things like that,” Paula Hayward, Owner of Bear Moon Bakery & Cafe in Boerne, stated.
“A lot of our stuff is on our fiber – we have our own dedicated fiber line so we don’t share fiber with any other business,” said Jeremy Affeldt, founder of Free Roam Brewing Company. “I mean cash is always going to be OK, right?”
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